Town Council - Regular Meeting

We can all rise for the pledge.

Katie, could you lead us in the pledge?

to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. A moment of silence for men and women in the armed forces, our first responders, our veterans, those fighting a good fight in Ukraine, and those suffering from military conflict in the Middle East. Also a memorial to Richie Layton, who passed away. He was 92, I believe, 92 years old. And Mr. Layton also had a company here in the Milford, but also was involved in our community in many, many ways, including Water, Witch, Fire. May his memory be eternal. Thank you. Katie, can we read the America's Creed, please?

Certainly. The American's Creed by William Tyler Page.

I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy and a republic, a sovereignty those principles of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and defend it against all enemies. Diane, do you have anybody for public comment?

Yes, we do, starting with Jackie.

Hi, everyone. Happy summer. I'd like to start by thanking New Milford Police for protecting us at ACT Local's weekly rallies. Oh, sorry. Jackie in Red Rulane. Let's see. And for protecting us at our rallies and for meeting with us about Connecticut police accountability laws and other public safety issues. and for arresting the MAGA agitators who violated a restraining order against one of our members. I appreciate the relationship and their assistance. I know there are many in this town who support and protect the First Amendment, and I am very grateful for that. And I'd also like to thank New Milford Pride for their Picnic for Pride event and thank the town of New Milford for their acceptance of this event. It was a beautiful day, and it had been a while since I felt as safe and comfortable in New Milford. Because I can tell you, we get vile, hateful gestures and remarks on a regular basis in this town. So unfortunately that feeling didn't last long. Last week I read that New Milford Board of Finance and New Milford Republican Town Committee member Joseph Troiano took on the role of treasurer for the homophobic, bigoted MAGA candidate Jaden McCormack. This is the Republican candidate who in social posts accuses the LGBTQ community of corrupting families and eroding society and labels them perverts and horrible people and stated publicly in a radio interview that they should get the death penalty. While it was nice and civil that the Connecticut Republican Party officially denounced McCormick and condemned his rhetoric, this kind of hate and intolerance is being pushed by MAGA Republicans all over the state and country. MAGA's hate and intolerance are strong here in New Milford, and certain members of the New Milford RTC continue to double down and flex their hateful MAGA muscles here at home. They sit on our boards and commissions and councils. RTC members Lynn Umbarger and Scott Letty of Inland Wetlands and Aquifer Protection spearheaded the recruitment of high school students for a Turning Point chapter in New Milford. Turning Point is a religious-based hate group that pushes white Christian nationalism and its intent on erasing people of color and non-Christians from our history and LGBTQ people from our present. The New Milford RTC has endorsed corrupt MAGA Aaron Stewart for governor before realizing she would get busted for corruption, so they changed horses. RTC member and town councilman Esposito has spread lies and fostered hate against us in town. Now we learn that the New Milford RTC pick for board of finance, Joe Troiano, is dedicating himself to a MAGA candidate so hateful that even light MAGAs have distanced themselves from him. Mr. Troiano has no place on our Board of Finance, making important decisions on how our tax dollars are spent and what gets cut out of our school budget. He should resign, and I implore the Town of New Milford and New Milford RTC to denounce Mr. Troiano, just as the Republican Party denounced McCormick. We will not stay silent in the face of such hate and intolerance. We remain vigilant and watchful of the rise of hate in our town and state. We will continue to ask town leadership to stand up to hate and the lies, to be brave with us. No more MAGA hate and intolerance in our town. And as I've said, and I'll say it again, silence is compliance. Thank you.

Next we have Irene Granola. a bigger name than ever.

Oh, five minutes. That's a treat.

That's a treat.

Yes. Hi. Irene Skrabilo, 205 Pumpkin Hill Road. I'm going to repeat a lot of what Jackie said, but it bears repeating. June is Pride Month. There was a celebration on the Green last week where people were free to celebrate without judgment and without fear. And this is a very marginalized portion of our community. So I'm glad that they were able to come together and get support from the community. Meanwhile, at that same time, on the other side of the state, a young man in Brooklyn was calling for the public hanging of gay folk in interviews and online. He posted the picture of a noose. Or he shared a meme of a noose. And he replied that... you know, this is what we should be doing, and he would support this. He shared memes of Holocaust numbers that were, that Holocaust numbers are inaccurate, adding 666 as a comment. His opinions on women can only be described as misogynistic. Jaden McCormick Brazenly shared these pearls of wisdom as far back as 2025 publicly on social media. All of this would be considered mainstream in places like Russia and Iran and North Korea, but his words are primitive and unacceptable in civilized societies. Despite all these transgressive posts, he still won the 50th district nomination for the GOP, and he is on the ballot as a Republican. If you're unfamiliar with Jaden McCormick, you can ask Billy Moe Buckbee or Ryan Fazio. McCormick worked as an aide for the GOP on the Energy Committee during the 2026 session, and if you work with people, you get to know them. I know this firsthand, and some of the stuff you don't want to know, but you know them. Apparently, young Jaden had to go 100 miles away to New Milford to find a treasurer for his campaign, a man named Joseph Troiano. Mr. Troiano is the former treasurer of the New Milford Church of Christ and the New Milford Republican Town Council. Most concerning to me is the fact that he's still on the Board of Finance. I can only assume Mr. Troiano is in line with Mr. McCormack's ideology as he lives on the other side of the state and he has no other ties to young Jaden. Mr. Triano can think and feel and hate any way he wants. It's a free country. I personally don't feel comfortable with someone like that making decisions about the finances of our town. The Board of Finance represents all of us, not just straight white folks and trad wives. Does the New Milford RTC share this ideology? As Jackie mentioned, over the past few months, we've had Republicans in town positions call ACT local paid protesters. Is Mr. Esposito here? I guess he's virtually, well, anyway. Or he's not. Deny that ICE is active in local communities. We've had council. We've had council members interrupt and dismiss people who were speaking out. and even try to start a turning point chapter at the high school. And personally, I don't think Scott Letty can pass for a high schooler at this point in his life. All of this is reflective of the New Milford RTC. Is this really who you are? I used to think that you folks were here because you love the town of New Milford and want what's best for the people. Now, I'm not so sure. Triano must resign from the Board of Finance. As I was writing this, a song came on, a Nat King Cole song, Straighten Up and Fly Right. That's what the New Milford Republicans need to do. You need to step up and fly right. New Milford deserves better, so do better. Oh, do I have any more time? Do I have any more time? Oh, no, it'll be quick. And midget wrestling at Pettibone, seriously? Is that something that the town sanctions? It's a town-owned building. Anyway, I just think that's a little odd, but okay.

Whatever.

Okay, next we have Tom Patsy. Tom, you go first.

Good evening. I'm Tom Kapsiak, 94 Long Mountain Road. We've become aware recently that Joseph Troiano, a member of the town's board of finance, is the treasurer of Jaden McCormick's campaign for a seat in the state legislature from the 50th district. Mr. McCormick has broadcast a number of hate-filled podcasts that have advocated violence against the state's residents and questioned the impact of the Holocaust. His vicious behavior has resulted in his being disowned by his own party. At this point, Mr. At this point, Mr. Triano should be removed from the Board of Finance. We could no longer have any confidence in his judgment. His efforts are even more troubling because of the recent efforts to establish a Turning Point USA organization at the New Milford High School. There seems to be an ongoing effort to bring hate-filled rhetoric and incitement to the community. The town deserves and should demand better. The failure to remove Mr. Triano from the Board of Finance will make his associates complicit with the hateful announcements of Mr. McCormick with which he is now associated. The town has recently had to deal with a pattern of negligence, incompetence, and the broadcasting of disinformation that is a threat to the health and well-being of the community. Mr. Triano's participation in the McCormick campaign is an unacceptable extension of that kind of behavior. His membership on the Board of Finance must be addressed.

Okay, next we have Helene Paradiso. name, address and five minutes.

Thank you. Colleen Paradiso, 55 Taylor Terrace. My topic is about a construction issue on Taylor Terrace and 202. On May 27th at 1057 I sent Mayor Bass an email because the lot was doing construction. It seems that the owner was working from 2 a.m. to 4.30 in the morning the night prior. The night I sent this email he worked until 3 in the morning. I did call the New Milford PD, even though we don't have a noise ordinance. I did report it thinking they could lend some help. When I went down to videotape what the man was doing, he told me he'll do what he wants. It's his property. The next day I emailed you, and you did respond, and you told the chief to open up a case. You copied Jack Healy, public works director, and Jeff Rondini, our building inspector, to look into whether land use and permits were pulled. I haven't heard from anybody other than Officer Wilcox, who did say he went to speak to the gentleman. He said he was quite a joy, but their hands are tied because we don't have a noise ordinance in this town. So the officer did say I could try and call back at night with what would be an unreasonable hour to keep working. So I said, what's unreasonable on a weeknight, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock? He's like, well, maybe by midnight. I'm trying to sleep. So are my neighbors. So are my neighbor's children. The work went on until 4.30 in the morning that night. I didn't even bother to get up and try and call the police because their hands are tied. What are they going to do? So I am aware that I am one of seven residents of the street that reached out to various departments in the town and nobody's gotten any kind of response. One neighbor went to land use, was told to go to permits, permit says we don't have any information. The man that's doing this is Mike Strabakis. He's an habitual offender to town rules and zoning. To give you the final update, that Thursday night he worked till 4 a.m., Friday night till 2.30 in the morning, no work that Saturday, Sunday night till midnight, and again on Monday till midnight. What he was doing was taking the asphalt that was being dug up up the road, I guess near Whitehorse, and it was being brought down into Taylor Terrace, and he was grinding it up and making a parking lot. And this is into a residential area. I know he's a habitual offender. I also, my understanding is from neighbors that have lived on Taylor Terrace longer than I have, that's designated wetlands. So he has now taken all the dirt, made a border around the property, he put telephone poles and no trespassing signs everywhere, and now the dirt's growing weeds. So it's very unsightly as residents in a residential area. And I have heard back from nobody. And neither have my neighbors. So we just wanted to bring it to your attention, especially since everybody knows who he is and what he does. And hopefully someone will come out and look at it. Otherwise, my next course of action will be to go to EPA and file a complaint with them. Thank you.

Okay, next we have Angela, sorry, I can't, your last name, is it Herdler? Herder.

Hello. I'm Angela Herder. I live at 207 Long Mountain Road. And many of you may know me, I'm a retired teacher in this town. Long time in this town. And I'm speaking tonight because I am deeply concerned about the moral character and the choice made by the Board of Finance member, Joseph Troianno, who now has chosen to support Jaden McCormick, despite Mr. McCormick's hateful and racist rhetoric. And our students and our youth need to hear this. I am deeply concerned that individuals on the town council would align themselves with this man. So I'm asking you guys and the mayor a simple question. Do you condone this hateful rhetoric directed towards communities that include people of different races, gender, religious backgrounds, sexual orientation, and political beliefs? Because if you do condone this, then you have a civil responsibility and you need to reject his MAGA hate. Show some moral character and ask for his resignation. The people in this town deserve to know that you respect their dignity and humanity. Speaking from a teacher, The kids in town deserve role models, not hate mongers. Thank you.

Hi there. Adrienne Bigelow Kern, 76 Second Hill Road. First just wanted to say Pride Festival, how wonderful it was. Full, fun acceptance. It was just amazing to be there. And just I will say I was concerned because obviously we've heard some of the things in our society now. But it was great. So as always, I have a book. So this one, it rhymes with Takei because George Takei, I brought last time when it was Asian American Pacific Month, talked about him. Well, he also came out with a book because when he was 68, that is when he came out publicly. And he came out, his partner, you guys can all read it, but was like, do you really want to do this? Do you want to come out? It could ruin your career. So just thought that was important to think about as we think about people today. And then one of my friends, I'm going to quote her, she has, she's got four sons, and they have lots of friends over and things like that. So I didn't really understand what my place is when it comes to celebrating pride, and it's taken time learning. I would see teenagers walk up to the door, talking about her house, especially the trans kids, and there was that look of just a little bit of fear seeing me and not knowing if I'm going to be kind. This absolutely breaks my heart, and you better believe that I went out, I got allied stickers, a rainbow, and a hate has no home flag. I was like, I don't want to ever see a child afraid. And from that, I just want to share some data about the LGBTQ plus folks. So they have a significantly elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation than their peers. It's not because of who they are. It's because of the environment that they live in. The Trevor Project consistently shows that LGBTQ plus youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide, but with the acceptance of even one supportive adult, that this reduces by 40%. Also, LGBTQ plus youth are 120% more likely to experience homelessness than their peers. So this week, Strides for Pride, which is with Covenant House, which has homes for or brings in homeless people, they're doing an event. So it's 40 minutes of exercise a day. So I'm doing that as well. So that's where some of these statistics are from if anyone wants to look it up. LGBTQ plus youth in the US make up only about 23% of the total US population, but then they comprise 40% of all the youth experiencing homelessness in the country. To end with, I just want to say that silence isn't neutral and speaking up matters today.

And lastly, we have Daryl Carland, Dr. Daryl Carland.

Daryl Carland, 12 Old Mill Road, North Vaughan.

I know the drill already.

Quarterly updates. So good evening, Mr. Mayor and council members. As head of outreach for the New Milford Community Emergency Response Team, I am pleased to give you a short update of recent and upcoming activities. We held the spring CERT basic training over two weeks from late April into early May and are delighted to have another three members complete that training and agree to join the team. All three have been sworn in already by Jim Furlow and they are already active. Dates are pending for the fall CERT training. The CERT has been at several recent events, including the Senior Center Shredding Day where we helped maintain traffic control, the High School Health Fair where we had a display table, provided preparedness materials, and engaged with numerous students, and a recent active aggressor incident response exercise at Canterbury. Next Saturday, a number of us will attend a drill, which I've never been to before, involving decontamination and evacuation from a nuclear radiation incident. Hope that never happens. These latter kinds of exercises and drills allow the CERT to learn what we should expect to encounter, procedures followed by first responders during those incidents and what we can do to support them. June 13th was the 2026 Connecticut Cert Day. Several members went, including myself, and attended lectures and activities such as role playing in a complex multifaceted disaster scenario, considerations and procedures for shelter setup, an overview of Alzheimer's dementia and how to help affected individuals and their caregivers during a disaster, a presentation by the Connecticut 211 organization that provides a large array of help and services, civil air patrol and its activities, a search and rescue demonstration, and a talk by the Connecticut Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security on the topic of targeted violence and terrorism prevention for community organizations. The New Milford CERT was among those teams nominated for the 2025 Team of the Year. The North Haven CERT received that recognition in part for their assistance at five structural fires during the year. I am glad for that team, but also happy to not have those kinds of major fires in this area. On May 13th, our Chief Al Taney and I had a virtual town hall chat with the mayor and will seek to do another later in the summer. The team was also proud to participate in the Memorial Day Parade, which was well attended despite the inclement weather at the start of the day. Upcoming soon, we will help at the fireworks display on July 3rd, the road race on July 25th, and are looking ahead to the rescheduled Senior Center Community Day on September 19th, plus attendance, of course, at the 911 Memorial Service. A brief reminder, the Atlantic hurricane season has begun. While this year is expected to be a down year overall for tropical storms in the Atlantic, all it takes is one to cause major problems. So we will be watching, especially if any storms reach the Bahamas and threaten to run northward. Anyone interested in learning more about the CERT is welcome to visit our Facebook page, the website newmilfordcert.org, talk to us when you see us at an event, or attend a monthly meeting. The CERT appreciates your ongoing support, and we will continue to help out whenever the call comes. Thank you.

Thank you, Diane.

Katie? Okay, item 4A and B. I'd like to move that we approve the prior minutes and tax collector.

Second. And we have a second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you.

Item five, I'd like to move that we accept a vacancy being filled on the 911 committee. That would be Steven Edward Barone. And he is a full member.

Do we have a second?

Thank you.

Any discussion?

All those in favor? Aye.

Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you.

Mayors coming thanks Katie.

First, I'd like to start at start out.

I'm happy to report to town. Olga and I were on a credit rating review call. S&P Global reaffirmed our AAA credit rating. This will be the third year in a row. I believe we're the only town in Litchfield County that has a triple A rating. This is the highest credit rating that you can get. That indicates the financial strength and creditworthiness of our town. Because of this rating, we're able to get the lowest possible interest rate. The report highlights several factors that led to this top-tier designation. Standard & Poor's Global said forward-thinking management practices, stable local economy, cautious budgeting practices with realistic assumptions are procedures for mitigating cybersecurity risks and the impact of severe weather events. As a town, we're in a very select group of municipalities across the state and country with this impressive AAA rating. The report also mentions that the town's rating is higher than the country's sovereign debt rating. Big thank you to our town and educational employees, our volunteers, our residents, the business community for making our town such a special place. Also, a happy belated Father's Day to all of our dads, grandfathers, uncles, mentors, those single moms that fill that void as well. A big, huge thank you and happy belated Father's Day. Congratulations to our New Milford High School softball team. They had a tremendous season. Though they didn't win the CIAC Class L championship, they played in the championship game, and we're looking forward to them doing even better next year. So Rolando, thank you to you. Thank you to Coach Farmer and the whole organization. It's great to see them getting to that championship. This past Saturday night stopped at the Williamson Park that's up in Gailidgeville as the Cub Scouts did their crossover and Father's Day weekend overnight camping so congratulations to the Scouts that now move up and to the parents and to the Scoutmasters that do a phenomenal job without them you wouldn't have Cub Scouts. The same with the Girl Scouts. Without those adults that really give their time and talent, we couldn't have those. Congratulations to the soccer club of New Milford's U19 Timbers. They're B League champions. Big huge congratulations to them. Also, congratulations to the New Milford Greenway flag football 12 and 14-year-old Rams, as they won their championship. Also, the 9 and 11-year-olds, Texans, they won their Greenway flag football. They won their championship. Also, the soccer club, Katie, New Milford U15 Bulls are district league champions. It's great to see all these champions, which is outstanding. It's a good year. Absolutely. Also, every month, the New Milford High School Band and Color Guard, the parents' teacher organization, if you have extra cans or bottles, Saturday from 9 they do it once a month and I post that you can go to the high school drop those cans and bottles off and that helps the band and parents organization and our award-winning band and color guard gives them extra funds to help out with their program where do you drop them so you can drop them off right they usually have a couple parents there you can drop them right off there in the parking lot Saturdays One Saturday a month, I posted beforehand. So please, if you have those, I know they would greatly appreciate it.

Great.

I want to thank Dr. Parlato. and the entire board had a great high school graduation to start off with. Outstanding speeches by valedictorian Ms. Pradeep. I hope I pronounced her last name correctly. Salutatorian Kristen Rogge and President Ms. Stein. I want to thank the Milford High School student Ms. Araya Dos Santos for doing a great Pledge of Allegiance. The New Milford High School Band, which is amazing, by Dr. Sysdek, for the National Anthem. Amazing job by the Advanced Chorus. Also, Principal Manka for doing the emceeing. Dr. Parlato, great speech as well. And to thank you to all the teachers, staff, administration, the Board of Ed, parents, and most importantly, our seniors, for a great 2026 senior year. Now, what else happened? Well, Scott of Coke had their graduation. And promotion, sorry, not graduation, promotion. I kind of get that mixed up. I got to hand it to Dr. Parlato because it was outside, big chance of rain. And she said, we're just going to keep doing it. And it was a great, really a great experience to have it there. Excellent job. Congratulations to all of the So Dr. Prado, what do you call the eighth graders, the rising ninth graders? Okay, to the rising ninth graders, parents and families. Excellent job by the SMS Select Band with Band Director Pothomos. Thank you. SMS Voices with Ms. Beddoes is the director. Miss Maria Lateef gave a great speech, I thought, for a nice moving up to ninth grade. And wonderful remarks by Dr. Parlato and Principal Demeer. And a thank you to Water, Witch, Fire who came, raising the red, white, and blue. And it was great to see those eighth grade graduates. And just a great, just what a wonderful, and I've been to a lot of the graduations there, and to have it outside was awesome. uh want to thank the park and rec maintainers for putting down the new mulch at young's field playground it's great for the kids they're going to be doing that at pettibone starting tomorrow so we'll be posting that so to use some of the other playgrounds not pettibone tomorrow as they put those up wanted to thank youth agency maria leo and brian hembrook and director jason o'connor last week we had our safe place picnic at carlson's grove and safe places for the neurodiverse community where the parents can kind of network and the kids can have fun and each year they do a picnic at the end of the year to celebrate that it's always a great time I want to thank the Daughters of the American Revolution, Roger Sherman Chapter, and the Regent, Heidi Norcross, Jenny, and the Connecticut DAR, Julie Tracy, as they gave us, as you can see up on our flagpole, the Betsy Ross flag. America 250 flag, and these were raised for Flag Day. Also want to congratulate Waterwich Fire Probationary members Hunter Goddard, Julian Donato on their successful completion of the Connecticut Firefighter One course. And as Dr. Darrell was talking about, on June 13 was Connecticut Cert Day. So a big huge thank you, Dr. Darrell, to you and the whole cert team for all you do for our community. Infrastructure-wise, Lanesville Fire Department renovation project, we're getting close. The contractor today was executing their punch list items to finalize the project. That includes cleanup, smoke caulking, drywall patches, other miscellaneous items. The painting contractor continued the final painting. The paving contractor installed the bituminous curbing. On roads, Railroad Street, you may have seen we did some work today the contractor is replacing the old wooden guide rail that separates railroad street parking from railroad street we're putting in new railroad guard rails there that should look very nice a big thank you to the contractor sand road the contractor continued paving the aprons on sand road they did have to stop due to weather New Milford Police Department, big huge congratulations to New Milford Police Department Lieutenant Earl Wheeler, Detective Scott Flockhart, Officer Brian Bolero on their retirements. This past Friday, they did end of call service where they call in the last time with dispatch. So big huge thank you to their service. for our community we do have some of our officers in training now uh to replace them so big huge it'll be a lot of loss of a lot of years i believe 82 years all together by these three officers and just can't thank them enough for their uh efforts for our community statistics motor vehicle stops this year so far we've had 1 865 which averages just a 74 a week motor vehicle accidents this year we've had 420 80 have been in parking lots last year we had 395 with 76 in parking lots the increase as we talked about uh when we provide these stats was that increase earlier in the year in the winter time when we had a lot of snow and ice duis this year so far we've had 35 last year was 45 That is a reduction, but one is too many. So we continue to ask people, if you are drinking, don't drive. Call Uber, call a friend, call family, and get you safely to your destination. You may have seen our crash car that Chief Ceruto's put out. It's going out in different areas as we do each and every year. That's to continue the awareness on what a car crash can really look like. So it's very important that we remain vigilant. And these statistics we talked about before, the number one and number two issues for accidents, number one is driving too close. So if we can stay a safe distance away, that self-responsibly will lower our numbers and also distracted driving. Make sure you have your hands on the wheel, you're not watching your phone or looking around. Just those two things can lower our accidents dramatically. You may have started to see some of the we call images on the roadways. So you may have seen pedestrian signs in the roadways. You may have seen some things to slow down. This is another thing that we're doing. I know I've been working with Chuck Ballard. Chuck's back there about different areas where we're putting those in to create additional awareness. for slowing down and being involved in really all this working together to mitigate traffic spots. So far as we're knocking on wood, our fatalities are at zero. And we wanna make sure for the end of the year, that'd be such a great data point to give to the community that we didn't have any. Also, speaking with Chief Ceruto, we continue during the weeks, especially when they're hot, to continue to monitor land damming, to monitor different areas and watercourses, because we do want to make sure people are aware that, especially in the river, It's a very dangerous place to be in, especially if you don't know how to swim. We have had fatalities in there. They've come down, but we still want to continue that awareness as well. It was mentioned tonight about some residents that were disturbed about work that was done way too late at night. I did speak to Randy DiBella, our town attorney, when it came to this, as was spoken before. I did speak with our public works director and with the Milford Police Department, and they're working on that. But I did ask our town attorney to begin to look at how we would put in a noise ordinance, especially when it comes to noise after 10 p.m. That's not fair to anyone that needs to work or has children. So I know Randy is working on that as we speak. Hopefully I can talk a little bit about that more at the next town council meeting. But Randy, did you want to talk a little bit about?

We can't just do that. I did that one year in Sherman and they shot it down. So the fact is, is that I've already outlined what we should be doing here. I've obtained another town noise ordinance, which I'm not too fond of because it only applies to construction. But there's also a provision in the state model. It's not really a model. It's an outline. It's a guideline. And the state guideline talks about festivals and things of that nature. So I think I can craft one out of that that might get by DEP. I've done a lot of other ordinances, as you know. And I think I can craft one that can get through past DEP, if you will, muster. But they are in charge, just to let you know. So I'm going to draft one, try to incorporate as many issues that I can that we have here and see if Deep will approve it.

I know one of the things once Randy brings that to the next council meeting, obviously that's something that we'll all be talking about. I also believe after that we should hold at least one or two public meetings so the public can come and talk a little about their concerns for and against it so that you and the council can get kind of a thought process. But no one should be with their own property should be losing sleep at 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. That's just, it's just not fair.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for looking into this. What's the timeline for getting a response back?

That's variable, as Chuck knows. When you deal with the DOT and DEP, you're kind of at their mercy. I will put an urgency on it for what it's worth, and they know me, because I've been a pain to them for a while. So the fact is that it's really variable, and it depends on where you get. I'm going to contact a contact that I have there who's in water compliance, has nothing to do with this, and maybe she can help out with getting this reviewed as fast as possible. I don't even know if they'll accept the review anymore. And if they don't, we're just going to enact it and then beg for forgiveness. The bottom line is I wish I could tell you how long it would be. I'll ask for expedition, and we'll see what happens. Thank you. You're welcome.

Okay. Next is some great events we've got going on that are going to be happening, starting with June 25th, 5.30 p.m. to 7 p.m. lawyers in the library and those are scheduled 20-minute sessions these are free pro bono uh where if you have a legal question you can go to the lawyers and libraries and you can get your questions answered you don't have to pay for that initial consultation so please contact public library i believe there's a couple of those seats left June 27th from 9 to noon is the Farmer's Market up on the Northern Green. And then we have the Commission on the Arts also on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. right here on the Green. Lou Mandler does a great job as the chairwoman. There's going to be a lot of music. There's going to be art, both live art and drawings and paintings. It's going to be a great time. So please, if you get a chance, come down.

What time does that start?

It starts at 10 a.m. And goes to? goes till 5 p.m. And on July 2nd, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the library is Jerry Monahan recounts the stories of Connecticut military heroes. It's part of our 250 celebrations. July 3rd, starting really at 4.30 p.m., that's our 4th of July festivities. And that begins at the library. We're going to have a dedication there. Then it moves over to the bandstand. where we'll have live music we're going to have a town cupcakes from the women's club we're going to have a signing of the declaration of independence lots of pretty cool stuff there as well then around 9 30 we're going to fire off the fireworks and that will happen on young's field road so you'll be able to see them all throughout the downtown which is going to be very exciting time on july 4th itself 9 a.m to noon is the farmers market Music on the Green from 10 to noon is Potter's Field. And then July 5th starts Sundays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Merwinsville Hotel. It's their Sunday tour. If you haven't been to the Merwinsville Hotel, it's a really cool place. Jeremy Ruman and the whole board does such a wonderful job with that hotel. And there's also arts there. There's music playing there. If you get a chance to go, it's great. They'll be on Sundays through the summer. And then July 9th, 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the library. John Cilio, he's a wonderful historian from Sherman University. and he's doing a dive into the life of a true American hero, Roger Sherman. So that'll be a great event. And then on July 11th, 9 a.m. to noon on the Town Green, again, is the Farmer's Market. Music on the bandstand from 10 to noon is Dean Schnellbeck. And then we have July 11th at the library from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Fun for Everyone at the Stars and Stripes and Stories Family Day. July 11th, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Dodd Road is a pet thrift shop. That's for animal welfare. And for your cat or your dog, if you need extra leashes or beds or all sorts of stuff, very reduced price, those proceeds go to help animal welfare.

Will they have pets there?

There's pets there if you'd like to adopt them. That's what I mean. Yep, you can go in there and check those out. And I, full candor, I did have one of mine that we adopted from there. Chunky. She's a great dog. Then we have a second Saturday, Stars, which is at the observatory on July 11th from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. That's such a wonderful event that's put on at our observatory. Now, right, Dr. Parlato? Now, one telescope, two of them.

Which is awesome

Car Show to Benefit, the Milford Food Bank, is on July 12th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. And then July 16th, 6.30 p.m., Rock the Block. This will be the third one. Last week's Rock the Block was just packed. Lots and lots of people, great weather for it. This is Nashville Drive, so if you like country music, this is a great band to go see. Also on the 18th, Litchfield Artisan Festival. That's from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the green. It's kind of like the old Village Fair days. I believe there's over 80 local artisans that come with their booths and their wares. Great time. That starts at 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 18th. Also, Vintage Mania, that's at Pettibone from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. And that's if you like old comics, if you like autographs, if you like memorabilia, old toys, you can go to Vintage Mania and pick up those. And then you also have the Irish Road Bowling That's on July 18th at 10 a.m. Starts at the Abbey Restaurant. I believe that's all sold out to be a bowler, but you can be someone that sponsors and also someone that could be a, someone that watches. That's always cool. And proceeds go to help a New Milford family. So, yep, so that's great. So that's what I got for Mayor's comments.

Moving on, item number seven. I'd like to move that we approve the following allocation. It's an end of year balance for 2025-26, which is subject to final audit, for the following. $502,964.43. This is from the Board of Education. For the Board of Education.

To move into different accounts.

The ESG lease payment. $232,906 for the repayment of the 2% set-aside grant to the Town of New Milford $50,000 to the turf field replacement fund. $50,000 to the new Board of Ed.

And that one we are not putting there. Cross it out. And I'll talk on that in just a second.

Okay, let me go around. So it's just those. We'll take the non-lapsing off for a minute. And forget I said $50,000. And the remaining balance to the Board of Education capital reserve account. Second.

Thank you. And I know Dr. Parlato and Chairwoman Sarawich are here as well. There is a new, and they can talk more about it if there's questions, there's a new fund that the state of Connecticut allowed the Board of Education to create and that new fund basically has no jurisdiction here with the Town Council or the Board of Finance. That's basically with the Board of Education. Dr. Parlato and Chairperson Sarich wanted the Town Council and the public to know that this is a fund, which is why they put that there. But we don't have to act on that. But they wanted the public to know that there is a new fund that's created and that's for them to use, whether it be for operations or capital. And that goes through their process, not a Board of Finance, not a Town Council.

So that should be redacted from this. So that's not in the motion that you did. No, I did not. Right.

Dr. Prada, do you want to talk at all about it or Chairwoman Sarich?

Yeah, it's just a new account that we're going to establish. We're setting aside $50,000. As most people know that we do have... for special education, which is something that we're really keeping an eye on. It's just going to be a multi-use fund, I guess, is the best way to put it.

And it doesn't lapse. It does not lapse.

And you don't have to touch it. You can leave it there for five years, 10 years. But just looking at the complexity of the needs over time, I think it's a wise idea for us to have that there.

Does anybody have any questions?

I have a question.

So it's $50,000 that's going to be put away? Is that what it is?

$50,000 for this year, correct.

Right, so is it every year increases or how does it work? Are you going to put $50,000 now or is it going to be forever?

So some years you might put zero, some years you might put $2,500. It depends on how the end of year balance is looking and the other obligations that we have, such as our solar project, our turf field replacement, and we always want to make sure that we're aware of what we have in our capital reserve.

So you're saying it could be $50,000 now and next year it could be, we don't know.

It could be zero. It could be a very nominal amount such as $10,000.

But it could be $100,000, could it? So it's a casino, basically, right?

No.

It is, because we don't know. I thought the budget process is to allocate the money for the things that we plan or don't plan, right? That's my guess. That's what the budget is for. So now we're saying it's going to be aside from the budget, we're going to have an account that's going to be looking at the budget and it's going to say, if we need more, we'll have more for whatever.

That wouldn't be a budgeted amount, though. It's at the end of the year. When we have an end of year balance, as we have right now, then we would determine how much of that end of year balance we might put into that non-lapsing account. So it's not something we would think about ahead of time and say, oh, in October we're gonna think ahead and say, well, we're gonna put $100,000 in there. It's not part of the operating budget. It's at the end of the fiscal year when we see how much we have left. And that depends on a lot of things. We have some positions that aren't filled. We have students who might come back when they're on a district placement. There are many reasons why we haven't ended your balance.

That's correct. But the amount is going to be included in the next budget, right? Because on the budget process, we cannot have less than what we have last year. In other words, you have money left, which means you haven't used the money, correct?

We have money left because we didn't use it as it was budgeted.

That's correct. So what was it? Seven, eight million this year plus, right? So you have that money allocated already in the account for unexpected things.

No, we don't have a, we don't have an account that is just for things. I'm not asking an account.

The money was allocated for something like this, right?

The money. So for example, it might be allocated to salaries. So there might be some positions that are hard to fill, right? And so in that salary line, there might be something left over. That's how we figure out the end of your balance. We look at all the lines where there might be things left. We budgeted for that in January. But sometimes we don't spend it for a lot of different reasons.

So if you don't spend this for whatever the reason, how come we're asking for that money again? I'm sorry, with the whatever, the 2% or 3% increase every year. You have money that's not allocated. Let's say it's $100,000. Next year, you say, okay, the town voted for $7 million, $8 million. Let's make it straight. We didn't have allocated for that year, for the fiscal year, $100,000, let's say, for the calculation's sake. And the next year, you're not going to count that money that you haven't spent. You will come and ask the people to pay more, 2% or 3%, even though you have the $100,000 that you have not spent, because I'm reading the statute. The money is the people's money, it's not my money. It's my money too, right? We're talking about not some money, it's the people's money.

Right, it's my money. I pay taxes. Right, everybody's money here. So they voted for the budget to come to the Board of Ed. So we're going to keep... No, my argument is this.

You have a budget and you're saying I haven't spent the money on the budget. In other words, if you're increasing money on the next year's budget, that $100,000 shouldn't be calculated in this increase. Let's say, right, the 2% on a $7,000,000 minus $100,000 that you haven't spent on a $25,000, $26,000, right? Is that a case?

So there may be years. There may be years where we use some of the non-lapsing.

I don't like the maybe.

There may be, but I can't predict what those expenses are.

Nobody can predict, but the maybe is $100,000 that people have to pay. Right. What's that?

The money that is in there non-lapsing is not coming from us.

Who is it coming from? Mr. Mayor, I think what I was trying to say is that let's say down the line there's a larger fund. Let's say we're up to $400,000 and you're going to have to spend the money for many reasons. I think this is my, what I'm thinking you're trying to say is that maybe we go into the budget year and it could be a more responsible spending year where you could say, well, I could use some of that $400,000 that we have put away to reduce this year's budget. Right? That's what I think.

We always follow the process, right? I might propose that, and then it goes to the Board of Education. The Board of Education considers that. Right? So that is a possibility. That's a possibility. That's a possibility.

Let's keep it in mind.

Let's keep it in mind.

I have no problem with it. It's fine.

In our minds, we're also thinking about what are our large expenses that might be coming up, and how do we protect ourselves to make sure that we have

I just want to remind everyone that part of the reason why we have this AAA status is because we often have a surplus as a town at the end of the year. I mean, it's a similar situation to sometimes we don't spend all the money that we anticipated, and that's okay. There's some that's left over. We can use it to buy all kinds of things, and there's nothing wrong with that.

And in this case, the...

Board of Education would just be setting it aside as a rainy day fund if they have an unanticipated expense. There's really nothing wrong about that. It seems very fiscally responsible.

No, the problem is that the money that was requested hasn't been spent, is a cap for what the percentage of the next year's budget is going to be part of, right? So you have $100. You have $100. You spent $90 for the year. So you have $100, and you have $10 in your pocket. Next year, we're coming to the Board of Education and asking, okay, I want to make an increase of, I don't know, 5%, right? So you're adding from that the top amount while you have the money. You have the top 10 bucks that you already have in a budget, right? This is the money that you already have. And it's people's money. That's almost...

Well, first of all, this money comes from the state, if I'm not mistaken. That's right. Is that correct? Yes. What is the state getting money from?

The state is what, printing them? OK, I got it. So the state doesn't produce any money. People do make money and pay for this thing. The state is useless as useless can be. Just about anyone. So the state doesn't do any money, doesn't produce money. We pay the taxes and the state allocates them.

Stupid or not so stupid? But we're paying a very small portion of the taxes that go towards this funding.

My question, and maybe this will make you feel better if the answer is yes. Will this, what's it called again? Non-lapsing account. Non-lapsing. Will this non-lapsing account be disclosed?

Well, we're the Board of Education, right? We have a purchase resolution that we present every single month. OK. And so the board then votes upon our purchases.

Yeah.

OK. But the dollar amount will be disclosed to the public and to the board here? Of course. We do that with all our purchasing policies. So this will follow the same policy? Of course. OK, great.

We do that with all of our grants. We do that with the operating budget, the general fund. You can look at it. Thank you.

You can look at it every month. I know that. I know I do. This is something new.

And this is Zach.

I just have to say, I mean, I'm a huge proponent for education. I think it's an excellent thing to have this rainy day fund, as Ari so aptly put it, to support our educators and our schools just in case something does come up in having this fund. It does come from the state. It is the leftover. It's not like it's being appropriated for something else. What my question is, would be, as you mentioned, we're starting with this $50,000 fund, some years you might add more, some years you might subtract. Is there a limit to what could be added on any given year?

Not what could be added, but the total amount cannot exceed 2% of your overall budget.

Excellent, thank you.

Okay. Meaning, you know, at its cap, it's essentially 1.5 million. Two percent of 78 million? Correct. That's a lot of money.

Most of it. I don't care about most of it. I don't care about most of it. Well, the Milford residents would appreciate state funding.

Excuse me. Excuse me. Mary Jane. We have speakers here. Mary Jane.

So the bottom line, it's going to be used for our students. That's the bottom line anyway, you want to cut it it's going to be for the kids so it's for our future. Thank you everyone, thank you doctor a lot of thank you Leslie.

Thanks Tom.

Thank you, Tom. Moving on to item number eight under donations, I'd like to move to approve park and rec to allow them to accept the following donations towards their park and recreation lifeguards. Microwave toaster oven from Matt Pagan, estimated about $150. A 10 by 10 pop-up tent from Ed Pagan. Ed, if I'm saying your last name wrong, I'm sorry. Approximately about $134. The Parks and Recreation Commission would like to thank Ed and Matt for their contribution for the town lifeguards. Second.

Any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you.

Item number nine, Connecticut DOT 2026 Community Connectivity Grant. I'd like to move that we approve acceptance of this. This is an award of $556,250 from the Connecticut Department of Transportation Community Connectivity Grant Program. The funds will be used to reconstruct and build new sidewalks along Young's Field Road that extend from Patriot Way North to Helen Marks Park. This project will improve pedestrian access and safety, connecting residential areas to key recreational spaces. Funds will be deposited into an account determined by the finance director. Second that.

Thank you, Mary Jane. And Chuck is here, and so is Victoria, our grant writer. If you guys want to come up, Chuck, talk a little bit about the project.

Thank you, Mayor, Council. So yes, this is a community connectivity grant. And the state's been very good about providing funding for mobility and accessibility grants. And if you've driven by the Pettibone School recently, the community center, I'm sorry, you've seen some new sidewalks going in, right? And this is a community connectivity grant from a few years back. It's finally going into construction now. We're just about wrapped up in that project. Same program. It's 100% grant from the state of Connecticut. Just promotes safety, accessibility, and mobility for parts of towns that need it. So we use that grant. It's 100% through the state of Connecticut for that. So as we got the construction of this one, we looked for another place in town that needed some accessibility. So we looked at Patriot's Way going, I'm sorry, to extend the Patriot's Way sidewalk going from the bottom of Patriot's Way over to Helen Martz Park. So here we have some pedestrian activity with no safe way to get from one sidewalk basically to the park. So we in-house, we designed a plan that basically connected the two pieces. So with the help of Victoria and the grant writing, and we proposed this through the same grant program. We applied for it last year. One round of funding came out. We didn't get the first round, but then we got a call a few months back, asked if we were still interested in the grant. Of course we said yes. We updated some project costs, and we got the award about a week and a half ago that said we were selected for this. So there's about $540,000 for a sidewalk that connects the riverfront trail, the Patriot's Way, going from Patriot's Way all the way down to Helen Marks Park. It includes some drainage improvements, sidewalks, accessibility, handicap ramps, etc. So it provides a means basically from the downtown area all the way to Helen Marks Park. And eventually, you know, should DPW move the pipe yard, that turns that space into a green space there. So again, it's just some future access to green space, to parks, and just safety. You know, the mayor spoke of like a vision zero. So how do you reduce fatalities and death and serious injury? This is one way. Get people from, remove them from the streets and walking on the pavements, get them up safely on sidewalks. And this is one way we're doing that.

As we've talked about before, we've really expanded, kind of,

walking accessibility so native meadows which if you know where that is you go across the bridge if you're going to route seven it's the wooded space from the right all the way up to the brewery so we have a stone dust walk that goes from there path that goes to the sidewalks that are by the bridge the bridge goes to the river walk that's on the river to the left and that you can go all the way to pass DPW and then you could turn up into Patriots Way and then it goes all into the sidewalk network here and then with its new connectivity grant now you have that kind of spiderweb so to speak that now will go all the way to Helen Marks Park so it's another opportunity for people to go out walk get great exercise use all of our sidewalk network that we continue to expand and redo and And I think it's great use of getting that grant money and continuing on.

Much safer, definitely.

Absolutely.

I just wanted to thank you both so much for doing this. I have walked that little stretch of road. And without the sidewalks, it can get a little sketchy sometimes. The traffic's not always anticipating you. And there's a lot of people who walk around. who will really appreciate being able to continue that walk. Right.

It's another leg of just pedestrian access now. We need to make it safer. And it is a very busy corridor. You know, Grove Street's busy, but that Bousatonic and Patriot's Way, that's busy too. So we're just looking to make that improvement.

Great. Wonderful.

Great job. Thank you, Victoria. I just want to say it's very impressive. Great job, Victoria.

Thank you.

Sidewalks. going down Route 7 heading south are just very impressive. The what?

I'm sorry?

The sidewalks going down Route 7 heading south. From school and forward? Yeah. It's great.

Sullivan Road down past the high school. There? You want an update?

No, I just said it's impressive.

Oh, yes. It's great. So they are coming along. They're working on the pedestrian bridge there now. I saw the bridge today, yeah. That should wrap up over the next a month and a half, two months, and then construction should be complete there. And then as we do other projects, so for instance, the Grove Street and Still River Bridge, bridges, we actually put in for a build grant. So not only does it replace those two, rehabilitates those two bridges, not replaces, but it also replaces the pedestrian bridge going down by the Frank's Way, Lanesville, the Lanesville pedestrian bridge. So we're trying to make that connectivity to go from the Route 7 sidewalk project all the way down Lanesville to get to the park on Still River Grove Street. We're just trying to fit in grant money with projects that fit because depending on the grant you can seek out, you score better if you can introduce different modalities, whether it's biking or walking or shared use paths. We're just trying to find any source that we can to secure better grants, more money for the town, and it just saves the taxpayer the money for fronting either 20 or 40 or 60% costs if we can introduce bigger and better grants through state and federal programs. Katie?

Chuck, handicap accessibility, any of this fall with that as well.

100% ADA compliant. That's what I want to hear you say.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Chuck?

Good job.

Thank you. Great job.

Thanks, Victoria. Great job. These grants are coming through, really, thanks to you. I've never seen this in the past, so thank you. Outstanding work, guys. Thank you.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed, any abstentions? Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Chuck. Thank you, Victoria.

We have an update from our finance director. Oh, God. There she goes.

Good evening, members of the Town Council, members of the public. I am here to report on our year-to-date report as of month of May, which is 11 months into the fiscal year. So, so far, we are continuing our positive trend on the revenue side. Something worth pointing out is our building permits revenue. we are exceeding as of end of May we have exceeded the amount that was collected for the full last fiscal year so it just really shows you know what is going on in town which is a lot in the building department a couple of other departments are also approaching or exceeding their budgetary target so that's also good news you know collections are tax collector office is pretty much done collecting taxes for the current fiscal year, and they are getting ready to start collections for fiscal year 27, which will be mailed on June 30th, actually, but the payment is due July 31st. um but getting back to the revenue for this fiscal year so we're still monitoring payments are still coming in uh focusing on closing out the fiscal year and just you know fine line all of it um state revenue is also on target which is also good news so nothing really major to report on the revenue side if you have any questions before we move on to the expenditure um

Thank you. Thank you.

Similar on the expenditure side, you know, there will be as a next item a couple of transfers. They do need your attention, but for the most part, nothing made it to report. Departments are watching their bottom line. You know, right now we are focusing on, you know, year-end procedures, just chasing some of the purchase orders and vendor payments, but nothing really major, no significant fluctuations.

Great.

Thank you, Olga.

So I'm going to move on to 10b? Yes, unless you have any questions.

I'm ready to move on.

You're going to stay there? Okay, so item 10b, I'd like to move that we approve that action on our year-end transfer take place.

Second.

Thank you, Tom.

Thank you, Tom. Any discussion? All those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? Any abstentions?

Item 10C, I'd like to move that we approve that action be carried and enforce appropriations.

Any discussion? All those in favor? Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. I'll let you make the motion.

Yeah, I'll make the motion so we don't forget that. Item 10E, I'd like to move that we approve the establishment of the new non-lapsing fund known as New Milford First Responder Fund. Second.

thank you Rolando and as a town council approved the ability for cameras to be put on school buses for school bus safety and a lot of people that continue to even when the red lights are on pass them either go around them or pass them in the opposite way with no median so with this we'll be putting cameras on the buses the goal is to have them enabled by the first day of school With that being said then there becomes a fee that's associated for people that decide to disobey that law. I spoke with Olga and my proposal is that we put a non-lapsing mean it's a multi-year fund and that money would go towards first responders capital requirements, capital, whether it be police cars, whether it be ambulance, whether it be fire trucks, that money would have that purpose, which would be to help those first responders that really help us, especially when it comes to enforcement, whether it be speeding or whether it be fire or helping us in need with the ambulance.

Good job.

So we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you, everyone.

Thank you very much, Olga.

Thank you, Olga.

Item number 11, Mayor, is an update on economic development.

Thank you, Katie. So first, start with the state unemployment figures. The most up-to-date is from May 2026. The state of Connecticut on a whole is at 5% unemployment. In New Mill for total employment is 14,945. We have employed in our workforce 14,267. That means we have 678 persons that are unemployed. We wanna make sure that everyone that wants a job has the ability to do so. That puts us at 4.5%, which is .5% below the state on average. couple things starting July 1 we were having our new Milford ice cream crawl and that starts July 1st through August 31st we actually added some additional locations this has been a great promotion that we've had the participating Venues will be Jesse's Ice Cream, Grassroots, All Aboard, Carvel, Villarina Pasta Shop, Kimberly Farm, Sonic, Wendy's, McDonald's, Dairy Queen. The goal is to pick eight of them to visit between July 1st through August 31st. You bring your seats to town hall and you get an ice cream crawl teacher. which has been great.

Do you have extra, extra-larges on order for people who go to all those places? Yeah, you can go and do that.

The next initiative we do is, we just talked a minute about walking and how, especially in the downtown area, with the Riverwalk, with our community sidewalks, how can we do a walking project as well as create economic vitality with that as well. So we came up with what's called Miles on Main. This is a community walking project. So what we're asking those that live in town and those that are coming to visit, whether a daycation or whatever, you can come and you'll be able to pick up at participating stores, which is The Hunt, Jesse's Ice Cream, our Economic Development Office here in Town Hall, Gallery 25, and BD Provisions. And you can pick up what they call a passport. It's a booklet. And with this booklet, you can go to participating businesses on Bank Street. It's Tomasina, Eyewear, and more, and that's going to be opening up soon. I'll talk a little bit about that. Grassroots, Swank on Bank, Paul Morton Jewelers, The Hunt, Joe Salon, Compass Rose, Evergreen Juice Bar, Bank Street Theater, Play, Jamie's Sweet Shop, Cowboy Butter on Church Street. Kang Tattoo, Beth and Company, Mama's Tacos, Ruth Chase Flowers, Railroad Street, Retromix, The Iron Rail, Gallery 25, All Aport Pizza, Main Street, Jesse's Ice Cream, Nordica Toys, Zaza's on Main, Village Center for the Arts, New Milford Public Library, Nutmeg Olive Oil, Honeybee Books and Tea, Salon 27, Beattie Provisions, Johanna's Restaurant. And you're going to go to those people that want to go to these participating areas. They're going to be walking around. You have to pick three people. on each road once you pick those three and your book is completed you can come to town hall and then we're going to give you this medallion as an award to come and it says miles off main connect community walking project and has the oh it looked oh isn't that nice the gazebo and milford strong new milford proud that's very nice So this is kind of another effort to create some more vitality. We're going to have more stores that are already asking to join. So it's a great thing to get people out walking, also coming in and partaking of our businesses and our restaurants in the downtown. After all those ice cream stops.

We're going to have to walk, Pete.

That's it, right? Also, Friday, September 4th through Sunday, September 6th, we're having a weekend in the life that's again that's the gilmore girls event uh very excited to see that the last two have been a tremendous uh booms for our town people coming as far away as new zealand australia germany england they come for these events they come from all over and uh it's great to see there'll be some of the stars from the from the show here as well as other events that will not only be through the weekend and the like, but through our merchants throughout the downtown and New Milford. So stay tuned for more of that as well. Score, which is a nonprofit, and they are retired business owners that help businesses. They're doing, on June 24th at 6 p.m., through 8 p.m. they're doing this I know it's a trudge it's down in Greenwich but they're doing access to capital which for businesses is a very important thing and you can go and find potential sources of small business capital including different types of lenders and investors qualifications for securing capital what you should do in preparation for applying the loan underwriting process, how to loan amateurize works, the amateurization works, how to improve your odds for a successful raise. And you can find these on the Economic Development Facebook page, website, also the Mayor's page. And that's one of them coming on. Also for veterans, the SBA has some veteran business resources, and that's supporting Connecticut's veterans entrepreneurs. And you can go to the SBA Connecticut District Office, their website, and there's a lot of resources that you can pull up or you can call them and there can be someone voice-wise that can help you. They're having some of their things too. Some of them is Start Your Entrepreneurial Journey, the SBA Boots to Business. additional veteran entrepreneur training opportunities programs for women veterans and these ones are online programs for service disabled veteran entrepreneurs again these this one is online federal procurement training the federal government takes some of their procurement meaning some of their requisitions for whether it be products or services, and they partition some of those aside, especially for veterans-owned businesses and women-owned and minority-owned businesses. So there's an opportunity to check the webinars for those that may be helpful to you. The Women's Development Council is doing an Access Through Capital SBA lending program, so you can go to their website and check that out as well. And let's see what else we have here. Lastly.

Those are all on your site, right? Yep. On our website.

and score also has webinars starting a non-profit organization intro to google analytics launching and managing a health or wellness business insurance questions answered developing financial projections for your new small business. So there's lots of stuff that you can check out and do. Also, the Knights of Columbus and the Milford Rotary Club are doing a charity golf tournament. That's going to be at Canterwood Valley Country Club. That's on Monday, August 3rd. I'll keep reminding those that are watching in our council of that charity golf tournament as well. And then lastly, New Milford Now. We've kind of done our rebrand as we talked about before. Seeing a lot of activity to that. So that's if you want to see what's a good place to go to, whether to eat, to relax, all sorts of wonderful stories from our community. It's notified at newmilfordnow.org. You can check that wonderful site out. And then also, we also have Notify New Milford, and that obviously is for where you have weather alerts, traffic alerts, where our crews are, and that you opt in. You can go to the town website, www.newmilford.org, right-hand bottom side, click on the icon. And you know what's great, Rolando, too? So not only do we have that in English, but as a drop-down of 20 other Languages, so if you know somebody else you can just click it down and it goes right goes right It's a great great website.

I haven't used it yet. It is well designed. Well designed.

It's in time for the World Cup. All those languages. That's right. Chess.

Go Greece.

Chess.

Yeah, we're playing chess.

That was my last one with Sal. Saturday.

Yes, so we have a chess tournament. on Saturday, one to five.

Library?

From zero to eight, anybody. If you can walk, you can come.

At the library, right?

At the library, and the kudos to the parents that bring their kids. Kids are brilliant. Great to see. And I can see right now we're gonna have some very smart people coming out of this town.

And is the mayor going to pick up the game with someone?

I go and I usually get my butt kicked by the young chess champs.

It's a community builder and some nice championship thing.

That's great. That's a good thing, Sal. Okay.

Do I have a second? I'll second. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Thank you, everyone.

Thank you.